Unions have given us the weekend. They have fought for the eight-hour day. They have agitated for improved health and safety laws. They have eradicated child labour. They have managed to get us paid holidays (a minimum of two weeks a year) and six paid public holidays each year.

Here in Nova Scotia, unions have given 25 percent of workers a voice in what is going on in their workplaces. This is very valuable because without a collective voice, workers are forced to leave their jobs because there is little way to change anything substantive in their workplace.

Unions have given many workers a sense of stability and the chance to keep their job—in reverse order of seniority—in the event of a layoff at their workplace. Unions have also granted workers a way to fight discrimination and racism at work. Unions ensure workers have access to a grievance and arbitration process, which gives them a shot at reversing unjust disciplinary penalties or even firing by management.

Unions also raise the wages for most workers far beyond what individuals can get on their own. Data from Statistics Canada shows that union members earn $5 per hour more, on average, compared to their non-unionized counterparts. Interestingly, the union advantage was strongest for temporary workers. In 2022, unionized temporary workers earned nearly $9 more than their non-unionized counterparts.

What could unions do better?

Unions could be more proactive in organizing the unorganized, especially those in low-wage jobs. Many in Nova Scotia are looking at the strike by 3,700 Metro grocery workers in Toronto and wondering why there are no unions representing employees in the two major grocery chains on mainland Nova Scotia.

At one time, there were unions in some stores, but today—except for the stunning example of SEIU Local 2 workers at Pete’s Frootique & Fine Foods—no grocery stores in the province are unionized. Grocery workers earn $15 to $18 an hour; 36 percent less than the $23.50 per hour living wage in Halifax.

Nova Scotia is the only Canadian province that does not allow workers to claim for stress and harassment caused in the workplace. The province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act does not recognize workplace harassment and bullying claims under the Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia. We have to get in line with acts across the country and start to compensate those who can no longer work in psychologically toxic environments.

Unions could take on and fight social causes outside of their immediate focus. For instance, from 1970 to 1994, the union movement in Toronto developed, built and managed the Labour Council Development Foundation (LCDF). In the two decades of its existence, the LCDF built more than 3,600 housing units for over 11,000 people in Toronto. In the context of our ongoing housing crisis, labour could play a renewed role in creating affordable housing for workers in communities across Canada.

Another cause is that of disability rights. More than a third of adults in Nova Scotia have a disability, many of which become more pronounced with age. Unions could play a more active role in fighting disability and age discrimination in the workplace.

The pandemic threw into sharp focus many inequalities, such as the fact that 54 percent of workers in Nova Scotia have no paid sick leave (69 percent of Canadians who earn less than $25,000 per year have no sick leave). This must change because COVID is not going away, and other illnesses such as the flu ramp up in the winter months. There is no paid sick leave mandated under Nova Scotia labour standards. People go to work sick and sometimes infect others. That has to change.

Finally, many older people who have worked all of their lives are forced to live on pensions which are too little to cover their basic needs. The union movement must continue to lobby for improved Old Age Security (OAS) and Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) benefits.

Happy Labour Day.

Judy Haiven is a member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada. She is a retired professor of management at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. She is also a founder of Equity Watch, a Nova Scotia organization which fights bullying, discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Judy is also a member of the editorial board of Canadian Dimension.